CLEMSON -- Sunday evening Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney again addressed members of the media during his weekly teleconference following his coaching staff's Sunday film review of Saturday's game between the Tigers and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
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The following is an abbreviated transcript of Sunday evening's teleconference.
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OPENING STATEMENTS: "I'm proud of everyone in our organization here in how they responded this week. I have a lot of appreciation for how hard it is to win at Virginia Tech, a great place and great venue. We did the best job we've done all year handling adversity within the game. Certainly there is plenty that we can do better. The name of the game, though, is winning. And we did that and battled for four quarters.
"It starts with our defense. That was definitely our best game of the year. We weren't perfect but played for four quarters. We were coming off our worst performance of the year. To hold them to 40 yards rushing was a great job. I saw an edge and a mindset and I saw some guys grow up some. We did a great job on third down. All of our wins we have turned the opponent over. We had five pass-breakups, so guys got their hands on the ball.
"The offense just couldn't get out of its own way, not finishing drives, but our defense just kept holding serve. My biggest disappointment with them was that we finished with one sack. We should have had a minimum of six sacks where we just have to finish the play. That was the most frustrating thing. We have to clean up a few things with eye discipline and man to man. Their whole mindset the whole game ... it was fun to see.
"Special teams, the biggest disappointment was the low kick. You clean up the protection and then you kick it low, so that was very frustrating. I was pleased with Aidan and him pinning them deep. It was good to see us at least go out there and make that field goal there at the end.
"Offensively, I was frustrated with the first half. We go 15 plays and get a grounding on first down. We overcome it and run it down to the 15 and then get a holding call, then it's an interception. We then get a 10-play drive, didn't get a holding call and Cade takes a sack. We have a third and seven on another drive, get a third and two and just don't execute. Drive four, we have a wide open play to Antonio and he just drops the ball, which was a possible touchdown there. To possess the ball the amount of time we did and not get points was very frustrating.
"The second half was a different story. It was a lot of heart and grit on those guys. We had an unbelievale play by Cade on the pass to T.J., a nice job by Briningstool and Cole to get in the end zone. Still, plenty that we have to work on. There were just too many plays where we didn't have all 11 guys getting their job done. Missed opportunities, critical penalties and critical drops. We had four sacks, but all of them were on Cade. We shouldn't have had any sacks. I'll say this; that kid competed his butt off and he really sparked us in the second half with his will to go win.
"We have another one this week, a tough one at Pitt. We just have to keep battling.
"Injury-wise, obviously the biggest one was Tristan. He's definitely day to day for sure. He tried to come back but wasn't able to go. I'm really proud of Elyjah. I can't say enough about him. Coming into the season he was our fifth tackle. To be able to get to your fifth tackle who is a true freshman and to see him compete the way he did was awesome. He played most of the game at left tackle, as well as punt team and field goal team. Outside of that, I anticipate getting a couple of guys back this week and we'll go from there."
Q: Were you a little surprised that they only tried to give it to a tailback four times in the game?
SWINNEY: "I'm not going to gauge how they do their stuff there. Regardless of who's running it, we have to stop them. I'll let them evaluate themselves. I'm just proud of our guys and how we did. We did some things that I felt were really encouraging. We didn't have Capehart and Peter, but we had a great overall performance. We just have to build consistency from it."
Q: Tre Williams and Payton Page seemed to be very active inside and took advantage of their opportunities.
SWINNEY: "Yeah, yeah and Stephilyan who is such a natural. He has a chance to be really good. I thought our ends got better. Jaheim and Hoffler are noticeably taking a step forward. Plenty we have to do better, but all in all a very productive day for us the way we need to play on defense."
Q: Can you take us through the Cade punt decision?
SWINNEY: "I think we did the same against Notre Dame last year. He does it really well in practice. He just missed it. It's kind of a punt-pass option. He does that every single week (in practice). He just didn't have a good clean foot on it."
Q: How do you go about manufacturing more opportunities for Elyjah?
SWINNEY: "I don't think we're trying to manufacture anything for him. It's just a great opportunity for him to get better. We have to get Marcus Tate back. Now, Elyjah wasn't perfect. He got better as the game went. What a tall task he had. It'll help his confidence for sure. He's had to go do it now in a critical situation and man, he got it done. He wasn't perfect, but he was tough and physical. It just adds to the depth.
"We came into the season feeling good about our four veteran tackles. We lost Sadler, who is a starter for us, a really good player. He's out for the year, but he'll be ready to roll (in 2025). Marcus gives us flexibility, too. Now we have a guy in Elyjah who can do it. He has played but now he's played in a critical situation."
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Q: Hevin Brown-Shuler played a few snaps on Saturday. What would you like to see from him going forward?
SWINNEY: "I wish we hadn't played him, honestly. He's got one game left. We had a couple of guys down and we felt like we needed him. Hopefully we can hold him (red-shirt him). Hopefully getting Peter back will be a good shot in the arm for us. We are excited about his potential. He's got the right mentality and maturity. We like him and Champ Thompson ... two good young players that we feel like we hit on. They're coming. Hevin is a guy who has made a good jump these last three or four weeks. We have seen a lot of good things from him."
Q: On the blocked kick, just looking at Nolan ... what kind of an athlete is he? And how do you feel he has managed what he has gone through this year?
SWINNEY: "He's a good athlete, a multi-sport athlete. He's a guy who has done a lot from a sporting standpoint. He has a great mindset. He did not go into the tank. Payton Page has 600 pounds bearing down on him in the A-gap there and he could be more firm, but ... you have to get the ball up. Nolan took ownership and came back. He said he had it corrected it and was ready. He didn't have a bad look in his eye like he was anxious about the next kick. He's just a freshman. It's disappointing that he's had to endure some of the miscues that we've had there. He's got a bright future and is a very accurate guy. He's got the right mindset for the position."
Q: What did you like most about your three linebacker set?
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SWINNEY: "Just our ability to stop the run. We go into the game and you feel good about how you match up. I come from a 4-3 background. It's just hard to ask a linebacker to go cover Antonio Carter. If you do, you become predictable in your coverage. It's not that you can't do it, but you're limited. We've played some base personnel this season, but this was a game where we felt like we were going to major in that.
"We have a good group right there. It was fun to see Sammy get his first start. The game has slowed down for him and as it has, he has gotten faster. He'll be one of the best leaders we've had come through here. He's a young guy people pay attention to. I'm just proud of him. We have to continue to find ways to get him on the field, that's for sure. Very pleased with how Barrett and Wade played, too. It's a good group."
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